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All photos are between: January 28, 2004 - (our closing date) and September 26, 2005 (our couldn't take anymore date) - bidding our builder, Ryland Homes, good riddance by officially kicking them out of our construction site of a house (21 months later).

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April 03, 2008

Las Angeles, CA. -"'With both parties in Congress voicing a new urgency to help millions
of homeowners at risk of foreclosure, the Senate voted overwhelmingly
on Tuesday to move forward with a package of housing legislation.'...Now part of the bailout you haven't heard much about: tax breaks for
homebuilders. 'Corporate homebuilders - including those responsible
for the mortgage and housing crisis - would receive billions of
dollars in tax breaks under a provision of the Foreclosure Prevention
Act currently pending in Congress,' the Laborers' International Union
of North America argued in a news release today...'Under the bill's little publicized "'carry-back'" provisions, builders
would get billions in tax breaks. The carry-back provision would allow
homebuilders to apply losses from 2006 and 2007 as far back as five
years against taxes paid on profits.'...When Congress is through with the omnibus foreclosure prevention
legislation, it says here it will resemble the world's largest
Christmas tree, with boxes of bailouts, goodies and giveaways for every
Who down in Whoville and every interest group and corporate lobby
remotely connected to the business of building, buying or financing
houses. Don't be surprised if the homebuilders find two piles of
goodies under the tree: carry-back provisions to reduce taxes, and new
tax incentives to encourage buyers to purchase new homes."...April 2, 2008

March 31, 2008

Washington -"Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson resigned today
amid a criminal investigation into favoritism in awarding HUD contracts
that critics said was blunting the agency's effectiveness in dealing
with the subprime mortgage mess...Last week, Democratic Sens. Patty Murray of Washington and Christopher
Dodd of Connecticut sent a letter to the White House calling for the
secretary's departure, saying his legal problems represented a 'worsening distraction' at HUD at a critical time... 'We are deeply troubled by the growing number of allegations of
impropriety . . . and the secretary's refusal to answer appropriate
congressional inquiries on these matters,' the senators wrote. 'Unfortunately, the allegations surrounding Secretary Jackson, as well
as his rejection of appropriate congressional oversight of his
department, undermine his ability to effectively address the current
housing crisis.' The investigation into Jackson began in 2006, after he publicly
disclosed that he had revoked a contract because the vendor told him he
did not like President Bush. Amid an inspector general inquiry, Jackson
told investigators that he had misspoken. Jackson, 62, has since then been fending off allegations of cronyism
involving HUD contractors. The FBI is looking into ties between Jackson
and a friend who was paid $392,000 by HUD for work as a construction
manager in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. In addition, Jackson is
also being sued for allegedly trying to punish the Philadelphia Housing
Agency for nixing a deal with his friend, music producer and developer
Kenny Gamble."March 31, 2008

September 22, 2006

St. Petersburg,FL. -"...LaCruz, a 44-year-old disabled veteran with multiple sclerosis, can't climb up the stairs to reach that bed. For more than four years, he's been trying. He put down a $1,000 deposit to buy a new wheelchair-accessible house in Brandon, with help from a $50,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs that helps disabled veterans purchase functional homes. Instead, LaCruz said, builder Mercedes Homes sold the property he had contracted to buy - and kept his deposit. Another family built on the lot and lives there today. Hillsborough County sued Mercedes Homes in 2003 for discrimination based on his disability, saying the builder violated the county's human rights ordinance by refusing to build a home for LaCruz. The case is still pending in Hillsborough Circuit Court. Mercedes Homes declined to comment...By 2001, LaCruz could no longer get upstairs without help. He began looking for a livable, one-story home. He met Brandon real estate agent Tommy Lovett, another former Marine...With Lovett's help, LaCruz found Woodberry, a gated subdivision in Brandon where neighbors take walks on quiet streets...LaCruz and Lovett say that those early discussions with Mercedes real estate agent Barbara Lanz came with a warning. The men allege that while they were talking about a house for LaCruz, Lanz said that Mercedes Homes had experienced problems working with another disabled client and would not want to work with LaCruz...In June 2001, LaCruz reached an agreement with Mercedes to buy the home for $243,000. The contract signed by LaCruz and Lanz has a list of modifications including ramps, grab bars, shower specifications and other amenities. Weeks after the contract, a Mercedes Homes architect showed LaCruz drawings for a standard Jacqueline Bay model, without modifications for a disabled client. After LaCruz objected, architects drew another set of plans...The redrawn plans bore little resemblance to the modifications that Mercedes had already agreed to make, Lovett said...In January 2003, the sides met to come to an agreement. Instead, Lovett said, a Mercedes representative told him that the company had sold the property on Berry Bramble Drive. 'Their idea was to crush us,' said Lovett, who spent the next two years writing letters to government officials and politicians about the case. He also published a book, Doors Wired Shut, about the case...In March 2003, Hillsborough County's Equal Opportunity Office filed a lawsuit against Mercedes Homes with funds supplied by HUD. The county's human rights ordinance and the federal Fair Housing Act prohibit making a home unavailable based on disability or refusing to negotiate...Williams declined to discuss the county's case against Mercedes Homes, but said that builders cannot legally deny reasonable housing to a disabled person. Last July, Mercedes attorney Patrick Roche wrote to LaCruz's attorney offering to build a Jacqueline Bay model home in a different subdivision in Valrico for'a substantial increase' from the $243,000 price agreed to in 2001. He also said LaCruz could accept a less expensive model in the subdivision. LaCruz refused.
'After four years, Mercedes wants to throw me a shoe box to live in and be happy,' LaCruz wrote to his lawyer...Driving home on Lakewood Drive, he inevitably passes the Woodberry subdivision. Houses in the neighborhood have multiplied since 2001, leaving LaCruz all too aware of the financial windfall he has missed."... Published April 21, 2006